Richard Arthur Phillips

   Another name for Richard is Dick.

  General Notes:

By Wendy Ellen-Mae Clarke, his daughter.

My father has also been known as “Dick” all his life. He commenced work on the railways on 31st October 1944 at Blackheath as a Junior Porter working shift work on the railway crossing gates, qualified as a junior clerk in 1945 and transferred to “Old Station” at Lithgow as assistant to the roster clerk. His job was to do the shunters’ roster. He transferred to Head Office in Lithgow in September 1947, didn’t like working there and resigned on 26/11/47. He started work with the Postmaster General’s department on 3rd March 1948, working on the Sydney to Orange trunk cables, and married my mother that same year on 31st July. My mother was fifteen years old at the time, and mother to me a scant nine months later.

Dad resigned on 19th September 1951 to work in New Guinea, along with a colleague, George Pike. He commenced work with Post and Telegraphs in Rabaul on 9th October 1951, Mum following early in 1952 with me and my sister, Leone. With two children little more than babies to take care of, and only eighteen herself, she braved a tar paper house with shutters instead of windows, gurias (earthquakes) that shook us from our beds, and giant flying cockroaches, something she’d never encountered in the Blue Mountains, as well as another baby, my sister, Diane, who was born in Rabaul and carried South on our first leave in a Buka basket. Hardships aside, both she and Dad believed we would have a better life in New Guinea, which proved to be true. Dad transferred to Wau in 1953, then to Lae in 1954, where he met up with George again. We lived in Markham road, near the airstrip at first, then later in Second Street.

One of the things I remember best about my childhood is the sing-alongs with dad as we washed up together after tea every night, and also in the car (when we eventually got one, that is). He had a fine tenor voice and was much in demand for a song or two at RAOB meetings, as well as being a passionate golfer. We all loved our life in Lae - my brother, Richard, was born there - and couldn't imagine leaving it, but the inevitable day came when Dad was to be transferred to Port Moresby. He resigned instead, returning to Australia on 16th November 1966, and started work with cable Protection at Summer Hill in December of that year. He was soon made storeman, a position he retired from in 1988 when Mum was diagnosed with lymphatic leukaemia. They then moved from their house in Roberts Road Greenacre to Springwood (near the golf course, of course!), where he lives to this day.

He and Mum were an example to us children all our lives of what a marriage should be, and I know he misses her terribly since her death in March 2000, as do we all. Fortunately, he has his dog, Mindy, to keep him company, picked from the pound by Mum before she died especially for that reason. ⁵

  Some facts about his life were:

• Religion: baptised Roman Catholic.

• Education: Intermediate Certificate. The Primary School he attended was Santa Maria Convent, Lawson NSW.
The High School he attended was St. Bernard's College, Katoomba NSW.

• Employment: Railway porter, PMG Linesman, then storeman for Post and Telegraphs in Papua New Guinea and New South Wales. (Post And Telegraphs is now Telecom, and PMG or Postmaster General's Department is now Australia Post).

Dick Phillips with Daughter Diane in Lae, TPNG, 1959

Dick married Sheila Margaret Clyne, daughter of Alexander William Clyne and Lucy May Lavinia Grimes, on 31 Jul 1948 at the Registrar General's Office, Katoomba, New South Wales ( see photo, left, taken on their wedding day - and yes, they really were just the couple of kids they look like.) ^{1 2} .  (Sheila Margaret Clyne was born on 18 Jul 1933 in Yeoval, New South Wales, Australia ⁶, christened on 2 Aug 1933 in R C Church, Yeoval ⁷ and died on 4 Mar 2000 in Springwood, New South Wales ⁸.) The cause of her death was pneumonia, resulting from an immune deficiency caused by incurable lymphatic leukaemia (Non-Hodgkins lymphoma).

To see a close up of the picture at left and more family wedding photos, go to Wendy's Family Weddings Album